Meeting of the Parliament 24 June 2026 [Draft]
The priority is to ensure that every pupil has access to high-quality teaching by having the right numbers of teachers in the right places across Scotland. Census data shows that, as a result of our continued investment, the number of teachers in our schools has increased for the first time in three years. Further, our 2026-27 budget provides local authorities with an additional £186.5 million to protect teacher numbers.
We are undertaking a detailed national evidence-led teacher workforce planning exercise as we seek to understand and project the requirements for newly qualified teachers. We also have bursary schemes for hard-to-fill subjects. It is worth noting that we recently delivered a campaign to recruit more teachers into areas where there are shortages, including in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects.
Although we are committed to working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and others on long-term workforce planning, local authorities are ultimately the employer.